Do Special Economic Zones Boost Employment? Evidence from a Meta-Analysis

This paper investigates whether Special Economic Zones (SEZs) effectively foster em-ployment through a comprehensive meta-analysis. While numerous country-level studieshave examined SEZ policies, their results remain fragmented and potentially biased bymethodological and publication-related factors. To address this gap, we compile a meta-regression dataset of 851 estimates from 33 empirical studies that quantify the impactof SEZs on employment. Once corrected for publication bias, the average effect of SEZprograms on employment approaches zero. However, heterogeneous results emerge acrossdifferent development contexts, with developing countries recording significant employ-ment gains compared to their developed counterparts.